RAY MASSEY: Electric dream may flip to a nightmare if the general public do not buy it

Two guests chatting at a party. ‘I’m writing a novel’, says one. ‘Oh really?’ says the other. ‘Neither am I.’

Today, the oft-quoted joke by comedy hero Peter Cook could be adapted to replace literary works with electric car purchases.

The Government’s plans to end production of petrol and diesel cars by 2030 depends on reluctant and cash-strapped private buyers deciding to buy EVs.

But they’re not. So unless ministers take steps now to encourage them – or push back that deadline – the policy is doomed. Plus, it will wreck the UK car market and cause much-needed economic growth to stall, leading to factory closures and thousands of job losses in our motor industry.

That’s the conclusion of the UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) following damning annual new car sales figures published this week.

First the good news. Car sales last year rose 2.6 per cent year-on-year to 1.953million, with Ford’s Puma crossover the biggest seller.

It comes as Ford has just opened orders for an all-electric Puma Gen-E version, which has a range of 325 miles, is priced from £29,995 and will start deliveries from April. 

Thanks to Herculean efforts by manufacturers – including £4.5billion of customer discounts – sales of pure electric vehicles soared by a fifth to record levels and accounted for nearly one in five (19.6 per cent) of sales, or 381,970 vehicles.

But that is still below the 22 per cent target demanded by ministers under the zero-emissions ‘ZEV Mandate’, which fines car-makers £15,000 for every car that fails to meet that figure.

The reality is EV sales depend on fleet and company car users – with just one in ten private buyers switching to an electric vehicle.

Petrol-powered vehicles still command 61 per cent of demand, while a quarter (25.4 per cent) of business and fleet customers go for pure electric vehicles thanks to ‘compelling tax incentives’ denied to private buyers.

The SMMT adds: ‘Action is needed now to amend the regulation to reflect the reality of a constrained market and ZEV demand failing to grow in line with expectations. Government must do more to stimulate private demand.’

Faster roll-out of public charging points is also vital.

After the Puma (48,340 sales), 2024’s biggest sellers were: Kia Sportage; Nissan Qashqai; Nissan Juke; Tesla Model Y (the only EV in the top ten with 32,862 sales); VW’s Golf; Hyundai Tucson; MG HS; Volvo XC40; and VW’s Polo.